I've caught the seasonal baking bug

Re: I've caught the seasonal baking bug

Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:28 pm

Sounds good! How/when do you add the butter?

Here's how this one turned out. If I'd powdered the top with flour or oat bran, it would have looked a bit more presentably rustic. I also couldn't lame the top because the dough was too wet, ending up with this volcanic looking natural fissure. LOL

I left it to proof longer than normal because my timing was off, and the sourdough was losing strength despite second feeding and becoming more like a wet batter, so I ended up adding a packet of yeast ... added a tbs of molasses AND mixing in some white bread flour to resuscitate the dough ... I really wanted to avoid a too dense bread with this one. I think the bit of singed top came from the molasses plus forgetting to reset the timer on the oven after removing the lid (ended up baking for additional 25 min instead of 15-20 min and internal temp was at 210F which is max of the desirable 190-210 range).

Still, can't beat the no knead bread technique for forgiving little mistakes -- crusty crust and chewy moist inside, a bit more sour than my kids will like, but it tastes fabulous and will be great sandwich and dinner bread -- should go really well Kielbasa.

Learning never ends because we can share what we've learned. And in sharing our collective experiences, we gain deeper understanding of what we learned.

Re: I've caught the seasonal baking bug

Sat Jan 03, 2015 8:52 pm

After I wrote this out, realized how one jumps over things, especially when it is in one's head, and then needs written.I shorted you on liquid. I use about 3/4 cup lukewarm water, teaspoon sugar added, yeast sprinkled on top. That's in the mixing bowl. Let that do its thing, get other stuff staged, and when ready get back to it. For the bulk of liquid use 1 - 1.5 c milk, warmed, and enough warmish water to make about 2 3/4 c. totalWhen yeast done enough, stir in salt, butter, honey, liquid. Then go for it with the grains!

An alternative to honey is sorghum molasses, and it is slightly darker. I can get regional sorghum at the store, more available than regular molasses. The oats help with texture and I think help to keep bread moist. As mentioned above, I use Hodgsons Mill flour, and I think King Arthur has a good white whole wheat.

Re: I've caught the seasonal baking bug

Fri Feb 02, 2018 3:05 am

I have baked a bunch of bread in the last month and a half (had an accident on 12-15, and knee surgery on 1-17, so I've been home a lot) - batches of 3, 3, 2, and 3 of rye breads, plus a bunch of Indian flat breads. The latest batch of rye bread that I made had something in it that I have been using for years, but I had forgotten about it, until I looked up a recipe in my "blue book" of favorite recipes - a potato pumpernickel, that I have made since the 70s,and at the bottom I added a note: "This bread is very good made with pickle juice". That's right, pickle juice! Don't remember what CB I found it in, but ever since I found this trick, I have used it for dozens of loaves of rye bread. I never throw away the juice from dill pickles! I use it for about half of the liquid in a recipe, reducing the salt some.

And speaking of potatoes, the latest flat bread had potatoes in it - Aloo Naan. It also had a little garam masala, and minced green chilies and cilantro, to add some spice to it. The original recipe calls for parboiling then shredding the potatoes, but I microwaved them for 3 min., then shredded them, which worked well. And it called for baking on a stone in a 500° oven, but I used a cast iron skillet on the stove top, which is probably more authentic, and works well.

Re: I've caught the seasonal baking bug

Fri Feb 02, 2018 1:35 pm

Oh my, RBG, those look fabulous. I'd eat the last one, too. Cake should be fun.

Have to look them up. Just thinking it may be some sort of fondant to cover, and then torched for the glassy look? However it's achieved, does the shine have a distinct separation from the rest of the frosting layer, like taffy on an apple?

I inherited my parents' baking stuff. Not so fantastic, but utilitarian. Huge pottery bowl my dad used for making five loaves of depression era potato bread at a time. Cake pans and racks of multiple shapes and sizes from my mom.

The potato and the water it cooked in were added early in the mixing. Dad used the starchy water to proof the yeast. It seems the potato made rougher flours a little smoother, at least from what I've read. We'd make his bread with or without the potato and it still came out great. The instructions were handful of this and pinch of that and until it feels right. While remarkably vague, it is good training for a cook to learn to trust one's senses. I cook by smell and look and hearing.at times.

My sister cooks by following a recipe exactly as she understands it. In this Age of Pinterest, that's dangerous. Bad recipes executed by a poor cook. We have three kinds of oats in the house now, and she doesn't eat them at all. She just read a recipe that called for steel cut, and one that called for minute, and... She told me she made a whole wheat bread recipe three times and each time it was way too dense and impossible to knead. She asked me for advice, and over the phone I realized that she was reading five cups of flour as equivalent to a five pound bag of flour. I don't even know how she managed to incorporate it at all. Guessing she had flour coated balls of cement at the end.

Pepperhead, that tip about the pickle juice is brilliant. Not only the flavoring, but the vinegar (any acid really) can make a more tender and flavorful crumb. Food science at its best.

Re: I've caught the seasonal baking bug

Fri Feb 02, 2018 3:18 pm

Yes look them up! Some of them are fabulous works of art.

No, it is not fondant and there is no torching involved. I don't believe the shine is separate. It just comes from the combination of ingredients. Ingredients include sweetened condensed milk, gelatin, LOTS of sugar (I'm thinking this frosting might be too sweet to really eat), white chocolate chips.

You have to freeze the cake first for the glaze to cling to it. I think people often put a mousse or jelly layer on top of the cake to give a very smooth surface.

The art of the coloring is similar to if you have seen people making colored oil films on a water surface, by dripping different colors in (water marbling)

Then they can lay a piece of paper on top of the design and transfer it to the paper.

If you look it up, there's tons of videos out there of the mirror glazed cake process and of water marbling

Re: I've caught the seasonal baking bug

Sun Feb 04, 2018 1:17 am

Winter is a great time too bake the house can always us a little extra heat from the kitchen oven. I have been having fun baking too. If I bake the 2 of us have to eat it. I made & apple pie day before yesterday from a bag of apples it will probably be another 3 days before it is gone. Before that i made a peach cobbler. Before that I made a small batch of cinnamon rolls. Before that artisan bread. I made a pastry with orange marmalade jelly topping it was very good. I have been wanting to make donuts then boil them in water like pretzels but not got around to it yet. Wife baked a chocolate cake today, I love chocolate the pie will have to wait.

Re: I've caught the seasonal baking bug

Wed Feb 14, 2018 4:37 pm

I'm sitting here with a piece of cake, a cup of coffee and thought of this thread. The cake is for DW and Valentine's Day; it's from the bakery and I pretended that it's seasonal because it's strawberry. However ... there's 5" of new snow outdoors and more falling so I can't say that it's from the local strawberry crop .

It was a pretty cake, although not as pretty as the prettier ones RBG has shown us .

DW caught a baking bug (after she recovered from that cold bug ). She found some zucchini at the supermarket a few days ago and baked four loaves of zucchini bread! How's that for a lingering condition? I thought we had passed through the valley of zucchini bread contagion back in October!

Re: I've caught the seasonal baking bug

Wed Feb 14, 2018 5:20 pm

I think zucchini bread is the perfect use for all that leftover zucchini. Today is wet and rainy and it has been like this for three days now. I am ready for a cup of hot chocolate and some fresh baked bread right now.

Re: I've caught the seasonal baking bug

Fri Feb 16, 2018 1:29 pm

We pulled a bag of frozen winter squash out of the freezer and turned it into two "pumpkin" pies, yesterday.

Please - I have upped m exercise lately (because of 7+" of snowfall ). Took a 30 minute, at-home walk. I'm gonna figure that my height is still 73", I was a little taller than that 50 years ago ... Anyway, if my waist should be half of that, according to the healthcare professionals, I'm only several inches too big around! - Thank you.

In less than 5 minutes, I'm checking on an exercise program that I used to follow on teevee ズ .